Remembering Tophlos!

My friend Lori made a wonderful quilt that was called Blindman's Fancy. Here's a link to Lori's blog, but not to that particular post. Lori's taste runs to Civil War repros, so you can just imagine how beautiful her quilt was. I was instantly smitten, and not just because of the quilt blocks.

Many years ago, when I was in Seminary, the first class we endured had was Koine Greek.We met from about 9 each morning until about 5 each afternoon and there were optional sessions from 7 until 9 each evening. For an entire month. It was hard work, but we bonded as a class and at the end some of us had a pretty good understanding of Koine Greek and could actually do some of the translation that the next class required.

Early on we learned the word tophlos, the blind man, and we learned the word anablepso, to receive one's sight. Whenever tophlos would appear in a sentence, we'd heave a small sigh of relief because he only ever did one thing: received his sight. The challenge would be to figure out just when this happened -- just now, a while back, or sometime in the future.I've always had a  fondness for tophlos and seeing Lori's quilt brought back  memories. I had to have a Blindman's Fancy quilt.

My turn as Queen Bee was December. In November I made packets with the instructions for the block (all 81 pieces of it, some of which were 1-13/16 of an inch as a couple of participants pointed out with vigor), fabric for the center square and solid fabric for the HSTs in the first round. I asked them to add fabrics in colors that they selected from the center square. My bee mates rose to the occasion. Above is a picture of all twenty-five blocks. They each finish at fifteen inches. Each is unique; each is nothing short of absolutely gorgeous.

Now comes the fun of putting them together. Lori's recipe calls for flying geese lattice with four-patch cornerstones. I think a small square-in-a-square would be better for the cornerstones. I struggled the other evening with my box of fabrics, auditioning possibilities. I think I'm pretty well settled on the colors I want. Next challenge will be to find those colors in the shop, because I only have FQs on hand. But there's no rush. When tophlos finally does anablepso, he's in for an amazing sight to behold!